Lenskiy, Malka win 100-meter dash

Donald Sanford and Yochai Halevi failed to book their place at the World Championships on Wednesday.

Yochai Levi370.
(photo credit:Courtesy IAA)

Olga Lenskiy won the women’s 100-meter final at the Israeli Athletics
Championships for the fourth straight year on Wednesday, recording a time of
11.57 seconds, just two hundredths slower than her personal best.

The
20-year-old was hoping to break Esther Roth-Shachamarov’s ancient record of
11.45s set over 41 years ago in the 1972 Munich Olympics, but was not too
dispirited at her failure to do so.

“I came near my personal best and I
didn’t really target the Israeli record today,” said Lenskiy. “I hope to break
the record later this year and if I don’t I’m confident I’ll do so next
year.”

Olga’s mother Irina, who represented Israel in the 2004 Olympics,
ran for the last time on Wednesday, bringing her long career to an end at the
age of 42.

Asaf Malka won the men’s 100m national title for the third
straight year, clocking a time of 10.66s despite suffering from cramp at the
start of the race.

“I was expecting to run under 10.50s, but couldn’t do
it because of the injury,” said a downcast Malka.

Hanna Knyazyeva Minenko
set the only Israeli record of the first day of the 77th edition of the
championships, winning the women’s triple jump competition with a leap of
14.50m.

Knyazyeva Minenko, who finished fourth in the London Olympics
while representing Ukraine, will jump under the Israel flag for the first time
in a major competition in next month’s World Championships and will be hoping to
come closer to her personal best of 14.71m.

Donald Sanford and Yochai
Halevi failed to book their place at the World Championships on
Wednesday.

Sanford won the 400m, but in a disappointing time of 46.24s,
while Halevi claimed gold in the triple jump, clearing 16.45m, 40 centimeters
short of the criteria.

“It’s disappointing to train hard and not get the
result. I wanted to run faster today,” said Sanford, who was named as athlete of
the year. “It’s an honor and a privilege to win the award and a testament to all
my hard work.”